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The Amusing Narrative Of The Life Of Olaudah Equiano Summary

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As the European empires began to expand their power through conquering territories and marking as their colonies, the Atlantic slave trade also began to rapidly increase. To increase their profit through agriculture in New land, America, many Europeans kidnapped West Africans and shipped them to America as a slave. In the Equiano’s autobiography, The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano,” the lives and journey of African slave who were forced to leave their home to work in America are vividly illustrated. Even though slave trade was big part in Atlantic world, indentured servants also took huge part in colonial America. During 18th century, many Europeans left their home and traveled to America to find new opportunities or religious …show more content…

The chapter 2 in his autobiography tells the story of him being captured by kidnapper to the journey in the ship to get to America. Equiano himself and his sister get kidnapped from his village in Africa and force to become slave. The difference between his enslavement in Africa and what he had to go through in the ship vivdly depicts the cruelty of Westerners toward African at that moment. Equiano’s first master is pretty pleasant experience compare to others. He even has little freedom to go around the master’s house. Even when he hides from his duty as a slave as he was scared of killing one of the chicken, he is barely punished from his master. He also has pleasant experience in the town “Tinmah” where his master was rich widow and he beomes her son’s playmate (Equiano, “The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano”). He has a good treatment from his master and he almost forgets that he is a slave. However, he is again sold to different place. Equiano notes that how he was continuously settled and sold again made him “most miserable; and it seemed as if fortune wished to give me this taste of joy only to render the reverse more poignant” (Equiano). Equiano is bought and sold like an object. He has no control over his life and he is treated they way their master wanted. He also meets his sister along the journey to coast. However, soon after they are separated again. As a slave, they have no freedom to be with their family at all. However, Equiano’s experience as a slave during the journey to America cannot compare the ones that he had in Africa. When he first enters the slave ship, he sees “multitude of black people of every description chained together, every one of their countenances expressing dejection and sorrow” (Equiano). Equiano gets devastated by this situation and believes that the Westerners are “bad spirits” who will eat him

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As a freed slave no one cared about them, and they could be taken advantage of or killed with little to no consequences. In chapter 7, Equiano gets into a fight with a slave. At this point, he had been newly freed and did not have a master. When the slave’s master found out about the fight, he demanded that Equiano was to be beaten publicly. Equiano refused to leave the ship and hid because he knew what could happen to free slaves.

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Olaudah Equiano arrived at the coast where he first saw the sea and a slave ship. He was carried onto the slave ship where he felt that bad spirits were around and the people there wanted to kill him. Equiano was generally fearful of everything on the ship, especially when he noticed that the crew looked and spoke differently than was used to. Horrors of the ship overpowered Equiano and he fainted on the deck. After awakening, Equiano realized that he has no change of returning to his native country.

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While Equiano's narrative shows the terrible conditions that he and his fellow Africans had to endure on the ship, Columbus’s journal has a very different cover. As opposed to Equiano's picture, Columbus’s journal shows he and his crew landing on an island in the Caribbean claiming land for spain triumphantly. This obviously shows two very different objectives in the stories. Emotion can be effected with the words we use as well, in Equiano's narrative there is an

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Throughout the book we see occasions on how Equiano was lucky such as, he was able to buy his freedom, tried to run away and was not punished, and was able to improve his education. Equiano accomplished to gain his freedom which is something that most slaves found impossible to do. One of the reasons Equiano was able to buy his freedom is because of his captain. For example “ I verily believe I should not have obtained my freedom when I did; and it not improbable that I might not have been able to get it any rate afterwards.” (The Interesting Narrative of Oladuah Equiano p.107)

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17.1 Captivity and Enslavement, Olaudah Equiano, the interesting Narrative of the life of Olaudah Equiano written by himself 1. What are Equiano’s impressions of the white men on the ship and their treatment of the slaves? How does this treatment reflect the slave traders’ primary concerns? Equiano’s first impression of these white men is a feeling of uncertainty and sorrow for the future. As his story goes on Equiano is afraid of these white men, but also he is wishing to end it all because of the conditions and treatment of the slaves.

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On the other hand, Equino’s situation and attitude deteriorate as he is moved into ever stranger and more dehumanizing circumstances. Both captives were allowed to earn money: in fact, Equiano eventually earned enough to buy his freedom. Mary, too, was eventually freed when her ransom was

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For example, when he told of his arrival in Virginia when he was the last of his group left at a plantation with no one to talk to and no way to understand those around him. To the British readers, who thrived in their own daily social interactions, the thought of such a lonely situation created feelings of pity and understanding. Equiano thought that he was “worse off than any of the rest” of his companions and “was constantly grieving and pining,” because of his loneliness. The British readers related to his emotional distress and allowed themselves to see him as a person. Therefore, they were more open to his ideas on slavery as a whole, because they could relate to Equiano's

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In Equiano's personal slave narrative, "The Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African", Equiano flips the idea that the African people are backwards and barbaric, thus ripe for slavery, by demonstrating his personal exceptionalism through his literacy to show that it is truly the white people who are backwards and barbaric through their own hypocrisy. This reversal that Equiano demonstrates in his slave narrative shows that the savagery of African people exists as a misconception and makes the reader fully grasp the need to abolish slavery and any inequality present. On page seventy-eight, Equiano uses first person pronouns like 'I', 'my', and 'me' to separate himself from the other African people and whites around him. This separation that Equiano creates demonstrates his exceptionalism as an African slave.

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The Narrative of the Enslavement of Ottobah Cugoano, a native of Africa; begins in the same fashion of Olaudah Equiano by narrating his upbringing. Cugoano was born in Agimaque to a father that was the companion of the chief of the country of Fantee. When the chief died, he was sent to live with the nephew where enjoy two years of peace and tranquility. After this period, he was called to go visit his uncle in the Assine. On a faithful day after three months of living with his uncle he and some local children decided to go into the woods to gather some fruits and hunt some birds.

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I think equiano was successful and made it very clear that slavery is injustice. One example from the text was "refusing to eat, one of them held me fast by the hands and laid me across i think the windlass and tied my feet while the other flogged me severely." Clearly the white men were unfair with him for not accepting to eat what they had offered him. Some of the slaves had even considered dying rather than staying alive with them. The slaves would try to drown themselves onto the sea ,some were successful and passed away but those who got caught would get brought back to the ship and get punished and flogged severely. "

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Some of the values that were important during this time were freedom, education, and religion. I 'm going to start with education because that is a very powerful tool. Without education many people wouldn 't understand a lot of things, and the world would be a very different place. In "Writings of Olaudah Equiano and Phillis Whealtey," Phillis was one of the lucky slaves who was able to be educated. Now, I 'm sure that most people today would think that was normal.

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(first name) Equiano’s journey although seemingly terrible, may have changed his life for the better. His life included slavery and beatings, but these hardships may have better equipped him to speak out against slavery. Equiano was taken from his home as a child and was sold into slavery by a neighboring tribe. Although he was forcibly removed from his home, leaving home may have made his life “better” in the end. If he had not been removed from his home, he would have continued to live a simple life and would never tried to make anything better of himself.

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Page 11). He is saying that although he wanted to repay the evils he had witnessed and endured, he would keep hope that one day God would right every wrong that had been done. This hope also came in forging spiritual and social relationships with men like this one. With men who would encourage him and share their own longing to inspire him to endure all the tragedy. Equiano trusted that God would bring his judgement, which would bring freedom to the slaves and suffering to the slave masters, and he was willing to fight or die for it.

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Knowing that Europeans often latched onto books describing areas of the world unbeknownst to them helped Equiano successfully sell his book to an audience of people who often saw him as their subordinate. In the 18th century, Equiano was seen by society “as an alien whose assertion of common humanity and civil rights conflicted with some of its basic beliefs” (Samuels 1). If Equiano spent the majority of his book talking about why slavery should be abolished, much of his intended audience would not have listened. So, in order to more effectively communicate his argument, Equiano wrote in detail about the places he visited while enslaved— such as the North Pole, areas of Africa, and various islands of the Caribbean. These vivid descriptions not only added to Equiano’s credibility, but they also held his audience’s attention, allowing him to more effectively express his point, and in turn, persuade his

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615 Words | 3 Pages

He then goes on to describe his different encounters and experiences with a variety of his slave owners and masters. Last was his description of life on a slave ship at sea and his arrival to land. As a white female, I cannot identify with Equiano’s hardships, but I definitely made me feel appreciative

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